Solidification of Recycled Concrete using Plastic waste

Abstract

Plastic is one of the most non-biodegradable material find use by human-beings at many places. Because of this it poses harmful effects to the environment. In this research paper we will focus on how to use this material as a substitute material in concrete and increase and degrade it harmful effects to the environment. The use of this plastic can help in solid waste management problem. Researchers think that use of this plastic waste acts as an important tool in managing the plastic waste as this paste harms our environment to a great extent. Thus, plastic waste can become a valuable material in combination with concrete. Concrete is used in building of every infrastructure like large buildings, homes etc. Some portions of coarse aggregate of concrete material can be replaced with plastic waste and also maintaining the strength of concrete. Concrete material contains some defects and cracks and plastic waste can replace these cracks by applying tensile load on the material. This research mainly focuses on the replacement of some portion of concrete with plastic waste. We have used 2 types of plastic waste in this case. One is thick plastic waste and other is fresh water bottle plastic. They are used in the increasing percentage rates of 5%, 10 %, 15% and 20% by weight. By varying the percentage 10 concrete mixtures are prepared and beam and three cubes are made from them and tested after 28 days. Beams and cubes are simply supported and then load is applied at three loading points by using 100KN flexural and transverse frame. Results concluded that as the percentage of plastic waste increases the flexural strength of the beams and cubes decreases. It also found that thick plastic waste provides better strength than fresh water bottle plastic.  Thick plastic gave a better result than fresh water plastic in the flexural strength of the beam. Results were than compared on the basis of strength of the design using British characteristics. By using British characteristics, the results of the beam- flexural test were compared with the strength of the design.